HOMAGE TO HOME

EXPERIENTIAL | COMMUNITY | BRAND ACTIVATION | PRODUCT LAUNCH

SOUTHSIDE CHICAGO (2018)

CLIENT ASK: Give Chicagoans something authentic that they can call their own

AGENCY Limitless Creative Co.

ROLE/RESPONSIBILITY: Strategist, Ideator, & Production Manager

To celebrate the Launch of the Air Jordan 1 Homage to Home, a split shoe based on the iconic banned and home color ways of the AJ1, we took over Foster Park in the Southside of Chicago - a place Jordan himself frequently played pickup games during the off-season. We invited the top homegrown talent & community members out to pay homage to the GOAT himself. For Chicago. From Chicago.

Homage to Home almost didn’t happen. Foster Park is not in the safest section of the city. A week prior there had been a shooting around the block. What Foster Park reminded me of was St. Andrews Park back home in South Central LA. A safe haven for the community amongst the surrounding chaos. After numerous calls we could never get through to the park manager, so myself and my co-worker, Dubb, went down there ourselves. It must’ve been God’s grace because we happened to catch the park manager, Miss Anita, right before she left for the day. She sat us in her office and asked “What do we plan to do for her community on behalf of Michael Jordan?” Something told me to tell her about the neighborhood I grew up in and how this wasn’t any different. “I’m for the community and helping those who come from the same place as me, regardless of region.”

Maybe it was what I said or the fact that two young, educated Black men were able to articulate our plan for a community on behalf of a major footwear brand. Maybe it could’ve been that I mentioned I was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated and she just so happened to be a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. We will never know exactly, but we pulled it off and the partnership with Foster Park continues today.